> Hello,
>   I've been having some fun lately working on a set of macros to create toy
> wooden train sets like those made by Brio, Maxim, and Learning Curve.  Any
> feedback is welcome and appreciated.  This one is a selection of the various
> kinds of track pieces.
> 
> -The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
You maybe can get some useful informations from this picture, for which 
the sources are available (IRTC 2000):
  http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/imagined.jpg and 
description :
  http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/imagined.txt

It contains  a detailled wooden train model, and some kind of automated 
system to place the tracks (or so it seems).

Thibaut

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>  Of course the problem becomes with bifurcating tracks: How to specify
> how the track continues with the other bifurcation? Maybe the include
> file could internally keep track of what it has constructed already, and
> the macro above could take an index value which tells it "attach the
> track defined by this array to the existing track, at the bifurcation at
> place n", or something similar.

Or, within the array you pass, have some special syntax where following the 
"track split" part, you have two lists following that specify the track 
pieces to be attached to each exit of the split.  The two lists could be 
separated by a special character.

eg, if 1-5 are normal pieces, and 6 is the track split piece, you could have 
something like this (using 0 as the special character):

14231161230444

This would mean that following the 6, you have 123 on one side and 444 on 
the other.

I think nested splits should be possible too.

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> 
> Or, within the array you pass, have some special syntax where following
> the "track split" part, you have two lists following that specify the
> track pieces to be attached to each exit of the split.  The two lists
> could be separated by a special character.
> 
> I think nested splits should be possible too.

I have done a similar system in the past, only for pipes. Worked quite 
well, I can post the source if I can dig it out...

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Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> Bring back some OLD memories. The difference was that back then, the tracks
> where gray plastic.

Probably not what you mean, but gray plastic tracks make me think of this:
http://museums.leics.gov.uk/collections-on-line/GetObjectAction.do?objectKey=265335

I had endless fun with one of those when I was a kid.  Hmm, I think I may have
my next project =)

-The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring

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"Charles C" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Nice tracks!

Thanks!

> Years ago I wrote a system in SDL to give a car sequential commands to drive
> around.  If I wanted to tweek earlier turns, accelerations (etc), the end point
> of the path would change wildly which made it challenging.
>
> If it were me, I'd keep the track placement independent of earlier pieces and
> figure out the path of the train after-the-fact.  E.g don't work with relative
> distances and turns but absolute positions and orientations - pretty manual.
> Make sure each track piece can have exactly several (?)* allowable rotations
> and allow them to be placed on a grid making placement relatively quick. I
> guess that's still similar to your #1. Once the track is built, the path
> (spline) intended for train placement can be created by listing track pieces
> and grid positions.  Forks can be ignored for the (spline) path creation by
> substituting non-forked equivalent pieces instead.**  Afterall you probably
> won't have a bifercated train (unless it was going too fast!).
> Anyway this is fun stuff to think about. :)
>
> Charles
>
> *I haven't played with these tracks with my nephews in a while so I don't know
> how many angles are possible or how fine of a grid would be necessary.
>
> ** Here a "piece" = ~3 points for the purpose of spline creation, not the model.

This does make a lot of sense, one doesn't want to have all the later
positioning have to be reworked if a small change near the beginning is made.

Griding might be feasible, "standard" track proportions do conform to a grid to
a point.  The track macros allow arbitrary lengths/curves/etc, however I also
made a set of helper macros to make tracks of standard proportions.  Wikipedia
was helpful here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_toy_train#Some_track_and_layout_geometry
Basically, straight lengths are all some fraction of the diameter of a standard
circle.  Curved pieces are nearly all 45 degrees = 8 pieces per circle.  So for
a given diameter, one can derive nearly all the other sizes.  The images at the
link show how they fit on a grid.  I think the biggest question would how to
structure the user input so its easy enough to use.

Thanks for the input.

-The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring

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Thibaut Jonckheere <tua### [at] MAPSONyahoofr> wrote:
> You maybe can get some useful informations from this picture, for which
> the sources are available (IRTC 2000):
>   http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/imagined.jpg and
> description :
>   http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/imagined.txt
>
> It contains  a detailled wooden train model, and some kind of automated
> system to place the tracks (or so it seems).

Thanks!  <sigh> I guess I shouldn't be surprised this has been done before, and
better.  Oh well, its still fun =)

-The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring

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"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> Or, within the array you pass, have some special syntax where following the
> "track split" part, you have two lists following that specify the track
> pieces to be attached to each exit of the split.  The two lists could be
> separated by a special character.
>
> eg, if 1-5 are normal pieces, and 6 is the track split piece, you could have
> something like this (using 0 as the special character):
>
> 14231161230444
>
> This would mean that following the 6, you have 123 on one side and 444 on
> the other.
>
> I think nested splits should be possible too.

This is a neat idea.  Structured right, arbitrary nesting should be possible,
basically a tree data structure represented in an array.

In a similar vein, I wonder if arrays of arrays could do something similar.

Thanks for the ideas!

-The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring

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Michael Zier <mic### [at] mirizide> wrote:
> I have done a similar system in the past, only for pipes. Worked quite
> well, I can post the source if I can dig it out...

That would be great if you get the chance, thanks.

-The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring

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Blue Herring wrote:

> This does make a lot of sense, one doesn't want to have all the later
> positioning have to be reworked if a small change near the beginning is made.

well, if you want to get really nifty, let the user define a
spline function as an input to your macro which then attempts
to place pieces following the spline as closely as possible.
And automatic bridges over self-intersections, of course ;)

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"Blue Herring" <bhe### [at] tinfoilcatcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.48342c60b9c4dd0fb05f96f70@news.povray.org...
> Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
>> Bring back some OLD memories. The difference was that back then, the 
>> tracks
>> where gray plastic.
>
> Probably not what you mean, but gray plastic tracks make me think of this:
> http://museums.leics.gov.uk/collections-on-line/GetObjectAction.do?objectKey=265335
>
> I had endless fun with one of those when I was a kid.  Hmm, I think I may 
> have
> my next project =)
>

Somebody remembers playing with this? I had lots of fun with it. The cars 
could run along flexible metallic strings:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Schuco.Varianto30.wmt.jpg


Thomas

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